(This letter shows Sandzén's money-raising techniques and also describes an unfulfilled dream of a Carl Milles statue by Presser Hall on the campus of Bethany College. It is addressed to his friend Charles Matthews, a professor at Manhattan, Kansas.)

Feb. 9, 1928

Dear Friend:

I just had a letter from Professor Weigel, inclosing a letter from Pres. Farrall, in which Dr. Farrall suggests a plan for purchasing my paintings. I appreciate Dr. Farrall's good intention to rush the matter through, but I believe a slow, sure and deliberate method of handling of the matter would be better. Would it be too much to ask you, dear, busy friend, to confer with Professor Weigel, Prof. Robert and a few others about a better plan? Suppose you could meet about twenty minutes to consider the matter. Instead of telling those who subscribe, that unless the matter be rushed through, nothing will be done, I believe those interested might be approached a little differently. Suppose they were told for ex: It is a decided matter to buy the paintings. Let us take all the time needed to raise the money. Let us find a simple and good plan. Would not an appeal to the whole student body and faculty and other art lovers in Manhattan be all right?      Perhaps societies and graduating classes might be interested? Suppose $500 could be raised this spring and $500 next fall and winter. I should love to see the two paintings in Manhattan. I may never be able to make an offer like this again.      We intend to have a statue by Carl Milles in front of our new Music Hall [Presser Hall at Bethany College]. Our little Art Club [Smoky Hill Art Club] gave the first $75 yesterday. We expect to have a special fund for this purpose. It may take us a year and a half, or perhaps two years to raise the money, but we expect to do it.      If you can speak a kind word for the paintings, I know it will go quite far. I shall be profoundly grateful. With warm regards and best wishes, Cordially and sincerely yours, Birger Sandzén

(In this letter Sandzén responds to an inquiry about his works and gives instructions on how to frame his lithographs. "Black is a little too serious for my pictures.")

May 22, 1929
Mr. J. B. Hill
Hamlin, Kans.

My dear Mr. Hill:

     I wish to thank you very heartily for your postal card. I do not have any catalogue of my work, because so many of my pictures are out to exhibitions a good deal of the time, that a catalogue would hardly be satisfactory to my patrons. I have paintings from $65 (12 x 14 in.) up. I also have lithographs, wood-cuts, and etchings. If you should be interested in an oil painting and let me know how much you would care to pay, I shall be glad to send you something on approval. In the mean time I am sending you, matted but not framed, a few lithographs and wood-cuts.

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Letter to Dr. Ernest F. Pihlblad, President of Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas, Sept. 7, l942 Dear Ernest: Some time ago you asked me to write a brief report on our art school.  I enclose a sketch which you may use for a more complete write up...... With best wishes Your old friend Birger

Bethany College Art School.
The founder of Bethany College, Dr. Carl Swensson, was a lover of art in all its various expressions. In the late eighties [l880's] Miss E. Cavell was called to teach drawing and painting at Bethany, and one of the large rooms on the top floor of the Main building was set aside as a studio. In l893 the art school developed a more professional character when Olaf Grafström, a graduate of the Royal Academy of fine Arts in Stockholm, Sweden, who for some years had lived and painted in San Francisco, was called to take charge of the instruction. Olaf Grafström was a gifted painter and able teacher, mainly known for his landscapes, especially motives from his native Norrland, and for his altar paintings which have been placed in many churches of the Augustana Synod. The first College building was for about ten years used as a studio.
    In l894, another teacher was called to give instruction in painting and drawing, Sven Birger Sandzén, who also assisted in the language department and School of Music. Birger Sandzén received his early training in drawing and painting under Olof Erlandsson in the College of Skara in Sweden, where he graduated in l890. Later he studied in the Art School of the Artists' League in Stockholm, Sweden, with Anders Zorn and Richard Bergh, and with Aman-Jean in Paris.
    In l897 Olaf Grafström was called to teach in the art department of Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois, where he served with considerable distinction for many years. A gifted artist from Lidköping, Sweden, Carl Lotave [Carl Gustafsson Lotave, 1872-1924], a student of the Artists' League of Stockholm and of Academie Cobarossi in Paris, known as a firgure and portrait painter was in l897 added to the faculty of Bethany College. In l899 Carl Lotave settled down in Colorado Springs where he enjoyed considerable patronage as a portrait painter. After some time he moved to New York where he became a popular magazine illustrator.
    Olaf Grafström spent the last years of his life in Sweden. Carl Lotave died in New York in l929 after a long period of illness. In l899 Birger Sandzén was made the director of the Art School of Bethany College. He is known mainly as a interpreter of the great west, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, etc., in various media, oils, water color, lithography, etching and wood engraving. He has also been active as a painter of portrait and of western types. In the course of the years Bethany Art School has had a number of highly gifted assistants, such as Mary Marsh, Anna Keener, Samuel Holmberg, Myra Birggerstaff, Lydia Deere, Katherine Watts and Gladys Hendricks.
    Bethany Art School has gradually become a well equipped, modern art school offering courses in art history, painting, modeling, design and crafts. In the present revival of crafts Bethany had taken a lead and created an interest in good design, metal craft, weaving, book binding, wood work, etc. The majority of the graduates of the Bethany art school become art teachers in public schools, colleges or universities. The distinguished director of the Art School of the University of Oklahoma, one of the largest and best known in the West, Oscar Jacobson, is a graduate of Bethany Art School. A number of Bethany graduates have also become commercial artists of high standing. There are three active art societies on the campus of Bethany College, The Smoky Hill Art Club with a membership of about 200, organized in l913, The Delta Phi Delta, national intercollegiate art association, of which a chapter was founded in l916, and The Prairie Water Color Painters, with fifty members in several states, established in l934. The Prairie Print Makers was organized by ten artists in the Sandzén studio in l932 for the purpose of promoting an interest in the graphic arts. Its present membership is about fifty and its headquarters is Wichita, Kansas.
    A small but carefully chosen art exhibition was held in the old art studio, the first college building, in l897. During the next seven years either the old studio or one of the large classrooms in the Main building was used for the annual spring exhibition held during Easter Week as a part of the "Messiah Festival." Beginning in l904 the west room of the second floor in the new Carnegie Library was used by the Art School and the annual exhibitions filled the West and central rooms on this floor.
    The Swedish Building [Swedish Pavilion] of the World's Fair of St. Louis, consisting of a main hall and two wings, built in the style of a country manor house in Sweden after drawings of the well-known architect Ferdinand Boberg, was at the close of the fair bought by Untied States Minister to Sweden, Mr. W.W. Thomas, Jr., who was an intimate friend of Dr. Carl Swensson, and presented to Bethany College. The "Swedish Pavilion" was first used as Bethany's Domestic Science Hall for about ten years and then made the home of the art school and the annual art exhibitions and the many smaller exhibitions held during the school year, such as displays of ceramics, textiles, metal work, prints and paintings.
    The Art Pavilion is an attractive building with good light and ample wall space. The Smoky Hill Art Club has for a number of years been sponsoring the art exhibitions of Bethany College. It has also in the course of the years purchased a number of works of art for the permanent art collection of Bethany College, which includes about thirty oil paintings, and 200 etchings, lithographs and engravings.
    Among painters represented are Carl Lotave, Olaf Grafström, Charles Hallberg, Henry Varnum Poor, Alfred Johnson, Raymond Jonson, Birger Sandzén, Nathaniel Malm, Samuel Holmberg, and many others. The graphic collection represents many well-known names: Dürer, Rembrandt, Nanteuil, Whistler, Strang, Nordfeldt, Hall, Badmin, Legros, Jacque Lalanne, Haskell, Haig, Bernhard, Arms, Reed, etc.
    There are two private art collections in Lindsborg, those of Oscar Thorsén and Birger Sandzén. In many homes are found works of art, paintings, prints, craftwork, a large number of "membership prints" [prints by members of the Prairie Print Makers - made by a member of the group each year], woodcuts distributed by the Smoky Hill Art Club, etc.
    There are several artists in and around Lindsborg active in the line of painting or craftwork - in painting: Maude Cooper Berglund, Dolores Gaston Runbeck, Alba Malm Dahlquist, Lydia Sohlberg Deere, Margaret and Birger Sandzén, Oscar Gunnarson, Carl Peterson, and in crafts - Oscar Gunnarson, doing character studies in cement or plaster, Anton Pearson, known for his realistic, often humorous, figures in wood limestone; John Altenborg [John Altenborg Sr.], master of art furniture and woodcarvings, Gladys Hendricks, art weaver and metal worker, John Kubitschek, who lives in Salina but exhibits his iron work in Lindsborg, C. Matheison, doing gem cutting, Stella Matheison, art jewelry, and others.

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